"
She affirmed that the ladies and gentlemen whose acquaintance she had
made in Minerva Court were, without exception, a "mess of malefactors,"
whose only good point was that, lacking all human qualities, they didn't
care who she was, nor where she came from, nor what she came for; so
that as a matter of fact she had escaped without so much as leaving her
name and place of residence. She learned that Mrs. Nancy Simmons had
sought pastures new in Montana; that Miss Ethel Montmorency still
resided in the metropolis, but did not choose to disclose her modest
dwelling-place to the casual inquiring female from the rural districts;
that a couple of children had disappeared from Minerva Court, if they
remembered rightly, but that there was no disturbance made about the
matter as it saved several people much trouble; that Mrs. Morrison had
had no relations, though she possessed a large circle of admiring
friends; that none of the admiring friends had called since her death or
asked about the children; and finally that Number 3 had been turned into
a saloon, and she was welcome to go in and slake her thirst for
information with something more satisfactory than she could get outside.
The last straw, and one that would have broken the back of any
self-respecting (unmarried) camel in the universe, was the offensive
belief, on the part of the Minerva Courtiers, that the rigid Puritan
maiden who was conducting the examination was the erring mother of the
children, visiting (in disguise) their former dwelling-place.
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